The Weekly Independent: October 10, 2016

Being a successful independent contractor or a client of choice isn’t just about doing the best work or having the best perks. It also means staying one step ahead of the curve. That’s why each week we bring you The Weekly Independent, a quick-hit digest of news of note from around the web.

Small Business Labs breaks down the 7 archetypes of the on-demand economy in an interesting new blog post that discusses a new survey out from the Institute for the Future. He compares these archetypes to the similar “five faces of the on-demand economy” in last year’s Intuit study. Despite the surveys’ dramatically different methodologies, the findings were relatively similar – which points to the fact that the independent workforce is rapidly changing, but profiles of the types of workers within are becoming more and more solidified.

The platform economy is becoming a backup career, Fortune writes, also citing data from the Institute for the Future study.